doggy style

Little dogs made from feathers! I don't know whether to be repulsed or to go weak at the knees from the cuteness. They're made by Emily Valentine Bullock, an artist based in Sydney.

"Feathers are my paint. Over the last ten years I have developed my own technique and style using feathers from road kill, cat kill and dead pets. Recently I have moved into a new source of feathers. I have been trapping and killing the registered pest, the Indian Mynah bird."

Um, gross. But kind of cute, in a weird way.

little boxes

"Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same

There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one

And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same."

I just moved back to the suburbs, and I hate it. It's suffocating, boring and it's a hundred miles away from everything. But recession, debt and a wish to travel mean that I can't spend half my paycheck on a flat in Ponsonby. So for now I am stuck in the 'burbs, dreaming of cobbled streets in Montmartre, dirty dance floors in East London and retro bikes in Pisa.

I grew up in the suburbs, and didn't actually mind it. There's something charming and quaint about them when you're a kid: playing games in the street, the overwhelming excitement of an approaching Mr Whippy siren, forming bike gangs with the other neighbourhood kids, throwing rocks on the roof of the grumpy old couple up the road. But then you grow up and can't wait to get out of there. I think instinctively you begin to see that there's something sinister about them; an underbelly of unhappiness and boredom. Think of the the hazy "sleeping beauties of suburbia" in The Virgin Suicides, the not-so-perfect cul-de-sac in Edward Scissorhands, David Lynch's fascination with the dark side of suburbia, American Beauty and the drug-dealing suburban housewife in Weeds.

Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road (which deserves a blog post of its own) also examines the dark side of suburban life, looking at the dashed dreams of Alice and Frank Wheeler. (Natalie and I are both too scared to see the film adaptation in case they ruin it.)

If you're stuck in the 'burbs too, this article about surviving might help you make light of the situation. At least I have the complaining incessantly down pat.

soundclash

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Tina Kalivas about her collection for A/W09, and then I saw Slumdog Millionaire.

Wait. The two are connected - well, sort of. Kalivas' collection centres around her work with a group of Afghani women who live in Sydney - they did all this beautiful embroidery and beading and jewellery-making. It's neon-bright, and clashy and intricate and amazing, especially against all the military-style pieces - khaki and epaulettes and stuff. It made me think of MIA and Santogold and that mixture of harsh and colour, pleasure and pain, celebration and war. Like Slumdog Millionaire - which I'm sure I'm the last person to have seen. But if you haven't, do. Today.

It reminds me of the novel A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and all that stuff I tend to forget when I get bogged down in work stuff, and need to remind myself to remember, especially at the moment. Money's not important, people are. Life is hard and ugly but it's beautiful too. All those trite, pat sayings that are meaningless until you really get them. I sound so earnest, but it's true.

scrapbooks

Call them what you will - scrapbook, notebook, journal or diary, I love mine and I love to see inside other peoples. I carry mine everywhere - it's where I stick postcards, pictures I print out, overheard snippets of conversations, lovely words, story ideas, wishlists, plans, dreams - everything. It's always strange to look at my pile of old ones from when I was a teenager especially.

I found this cute blog which invites all sorts of different creatives to post scans of their sketchbooks and collages. It's such a nice way to see into the muddled yet beautiful workings of someones mind. They look like thoughts or dreams, don't you think?


Designer Michael Bierut wrote a thoughtful piece on the role notebooks play in his design here.

Norwegian designer Marieke scans her notebook pages in here.


And if you're a completely obsessive Moleskine fan you can check out this. I love Moleskines but I'm not fussy, really - they're pretty expensive for what they are, but they're beautiful.

stacey mark

Some of my favourite photos, shot by New York photographer Stacey Mark. She used to be the photo director at Nylon, and randomly picked up the camera about three years ago when she photographed Asia Argento.

"Asia had no idea that I had never shot a photo before, she looked at me as she would a photographer, she looked at me with trust, and through her eyes I became a photographer."

I quite like her lo-fi, go for it attitude. I guess in the age of the Internet and Facebook, anyone can become a photographer, can't they? But I do like her aesthetic - dreamy, pretty and intimate, but also a bit raw around the edges. She clearly likes to get up-close-and-personal with pretty girls - in a non-pervy way. They sort of remind me of photos a best friend or lover would take. See more here.

paper dolls

Image via bloomalicious.com

"I'm a paper freak, always have been. It was a dream to do a show like this, and a good symbol. It's like the story of the white page, and how it can be suicidal when you look at a clean white sheet and cannot do your first sketch."

I'm a paper freak too, Karl! The Chanel Spring 2009 haute couture collection is heaven. Entirely produced in black, parchment cream and icy virgin white, it is pared back, gorgeous, sharply cut. The setting was festooned with intricate paper doilies and screeds of flowers.

But best of all are the headpieces. Created by Tokyo-based milliner Kamo, they look like delicate origami. Kamo has worked with Ricardo Tisci at Givenchy and notably, Junya Watanabe. You can see some more of his work here. And yes, I am pointing you to Kanye West's blog, which I'm not normally in the habit of reading, honest to god. But Zoe and I love putting stuff on our heads, as you may have noticed.

crush on you

Working in fashion and the media, you quickly develop small crushes on certain figures throughout the industry. But not in a 'Dear Diary, guess who I have a crush on?' sort of way. It's more like models, editors, writers and fashion designers who you admire and/or wish you were BFF's with. There are the obvious ones: Karl, Amanda Harlech, Carine, the entire Paris Vogue crew etc. Here are some others (I know there are plenty of others, but I got bored writing/collating this!):

Luella Bartley
Not to be a dick or anything, but her clothes speak to me. They’re not particularly ground-breaking, but I do adore their preppy English eccentricity. I also love that she’s obsessed with ponies, used to share a flat with M.I.A. and Justine from Elastica, and started her label after getting drunk and being dared to (she once brilliantly described her clothes as “the kind of clothes you can get drunk and fall over in”). I probably also find her quite inspiring because she used to be a fashion writer, like myself.

Alber Elbaz
He seems so nice and utterly charming. The Lanvin designer used to be an Israeli soldier, but is now better known for his simple, feminine designs and big bow-ties. Natalie Portman once called him the "ultimate fashion philosopher-mentor"; he tells her things like, "Wear flats. You're short. It's much cooler not to pretend". Oh to have a designer BFF who wears bow-ties and gives me rad fashion advice like that.

Hadley Freeman
I imagine we would get along incredibly well - we both love headbands, Wes Anderson films and being really really sarcastic - but that could well be wishful thinking. She's the deputy fashion editor at The Guardian, and my writer idol.

Katie Grand
Duh.

Jourdan Dunn
I know that the entire blogosphere has a collective crush on Erin Wasson, and everyone else on Agyness Deyn, but I think Wasson is a twit and Deyn is overexposed. Have you seen Deyn’s recent US Vogue shoot with her boyfriend? Vom! Anyway, models generally escape my attention altogether, but I do like Jourdan Dunn. Of course she’s stunning, but she also seems smart and articulate. Last year she spoke out about racism in the fashion industry (before it was ‘fashionable’ and Italian Vogue did their Black Issue), asking The Evening Standard why there are so few black faces on the runway. She's also not too pretentious to talk about dog poo in front of a journalist.

Tim Walker

His photos are an absolute delight, and I always look forward to his distinctive shoots. They're like a magical fairytale come to life, and I imagine his life to be something like the self portrait below: dreamy, playful and silly, with lots of whimsy and beautiful cakes. And we have the same last name! Maybe he's a long lost cousin? I wish. Natalie has written about him a couple of times, here and here.

Marc Jacobs
He's gone a bit odd, but I did love him when he was awkward and weird. I think it was this amazing profile by Amy Larocca that made me fall hard - he says things like, "I love a blouse that's dumb" and "I like romantic allusions to the past: what the babysitter wore, what the art teacher wore". And he "does a series of pogo-y, mosh-pit moves to 80s songs" at Le Baron and sings along to old Wham! songs. Dream man? Sigh, I wish I was Sofia Coppola.

oh hai

product photo from temptalia.com

You would have heard by now that M.A.C. are releasing a capsule range of Hello Kitty makeup – I think it goes in store in the next couple of months. It's definitely not as pink as you would expect from the Japanese puss. I want all of it! Mainly because I am a not-so-secret Hello Kitty whore. The fat-faced feline combines three of my favourite things: kittens, the colour pink and Japanese kitsch. Of course I know it’s terribly clichéd and kind of gross - the H.K. symbol is almost like the Playboy Bunny in the way that it makes women go weak at the knees and want to buy anything branded with it. A part of me hates myself for liking it, but...she’s just so cute! I do have an embarrassing amount of Hello Kitty memorabilia – a Hello Kitty camera, Hello Kitty mouse pad, Hello Kitty coin wallet, Hello Kitty pens, Hello Kitty mug, Hello Kitty white board. I almost bought a Hello Kitty toaster once (it burns her face onto the bread). But that doesn’t even begin to scrape the surface of the product you can get.

What I really want is to fly to Tokyo on the Hello Kitty airplane, eat at the Hello Kitty restaurant and own a Hello Kitty guitar (Jane from The Go-Go’s plays one!). Oh, and maybe visit the Hello Kitty maternity hospital. Although all that pink cutesiness would probably make me want to shoot myself in the face. Maybe with this Hello Kitty gun.

wordy

I adore Tauba Auerbach, especially her word-based pieces. Typography, word play, opposites and alphabets.

"Tauba Auerbach’s work deals with the shortcomings and possibilities of language. Her work approaches language as a technology, a system of symbols by which the internal complexities of a person’s mind, body and general self are converted into an external, transmittable form. Implied in her work is the notion that this conversion process is inexact. Her focus on language is a focus on the space between individuals, the gap they attempt to cross to meet one another intellectually and emotionally, and the nature of the tools they use to do so. Her analysis includes a substantive examination of words, and a deep formal meditation on individual letters. “I feel as though I know each letter intimately—its shortcomings and its tendencies. I feel close to them.” Overall, her work attempts to present a more complicated and flexible version of reality than language customarily allows."

balloons

Isn't this light fixture beautiful - like white caviar, or pearls? It was exhibited at the IMM in Cologne recently.


I've got a bit of a thing for balloons at the moment - they're so cheerful and impermanent. They're sweet and cute for children's parties but so depressing and shrivelled after they pop.

One of my all-time favourite exhibitions was at the Michael Lett gallery in Auckland, where the entire space was crammed floor to ceiling with hundreds upon hundreds of pink balloons. As guests gathered, they had to walk through the space to get drinks, and gradually, the balloons lessened. It was such a strange, disjointed feeling, wandering through this rubbery, bubbly space - and the light was beautiful, as was the way you felt so removed despite being surrounded by people. Eerie.

A video of a similar installation by artist Martin Creed can be seen here. It's quite possible he did the one in Auckland too - I can't remember.

William Lamson is a video artist who makes um, videos. He's quite enamoured with the balloon too - you can see some of his work here. I especially like Tundra, when two black balloons, tethered with tape take flight over a sparse winter landscape.

Of course, black balloons are the furthest from cheerful - think The Kills tortured ode to painful love, Black Balloon. Emo.

lace me up

Ann Demeulemeester S/S '09

Learning to tie your shoelaces. That's a big moment, akin only to learning to whistle, or wink - take it for granted now, but remember when it was the hardest thing in the world - and you needed that rhyme to learn how. I can't remember how it goes - over and under...

I am having a moment with lace up shoes, triggered by these clever Ann Demeulemeester ones. I'm also quite partial to these Acne ones. Part of me finds them quite ugly - awkward; but another finds them hot, reminiscent of corsetry lacing. Although I'm not into corsets. Or lacing.